What is a mule tide?

Answer 1

Well, darling, a "mule tide" doesn't exist in any dictionary I know of. Maybe you meant "high tide," which is when the water reaches its maximum height, or "low tide," when it's at its lowest. But hey, if you wanna start a new trend with mules and tides, you do you!

Answer 2

If you mean "Mule-Tied", the southern expression...

I believe it refers to being trapped in a bad situation by someone's stubborness or less specifically, just trapped in a bad situation. Similarly it can just mean "Stuck".

The imagry being referred to is a farmer etc. who has his mule tied to a tree... and somehow the mule walks around the tree several times while the farmer is close to the tree, tieing the farmer to the tree. Mules don't obey like horses, so it's hard to get them to follow commands, and basically the farmer would have to have a tug-of-war with the mule via the rope to pull the mule in close enough that he could guide it back around the tree until the rope was loose enough for him to slip out of.

It's an old cartoon image used a lot in the 1800s, though i'm not exactly sure if the phrase preceeded the Cartoons, which would be referring to them, or if perhaps the phrase grew from cartoonists use of the humor of the image, usually in politcal cartoons.

As well, in the southeast, it came to be used as an insult or barb in the 1900s, which i can attest to from the older members of my family... used in the manner of "You mule-tied fool!" or "Don't be such a mule-tied fool".